Semana Santa

Alejandra Márquez Abella

Year

2015

Runtime

85 min

Language

Spanish

Country

Mexico

Principal Cast

Anajosé Aldrete, Tenoch Huerta, Esteban Avila, Jimena Cuarón

All-inclusive resorts promise an extravagant
break from daily life, yet the obligation
to enjoy oneself can be oppressive — to say
nothing of the 24/7 proximity to family members.
This is just what Dali (Anajosé Aldrete)
discovers in Alejandra Márquez Abella's poignant
debut, Semana Santa, when she takes
her eight-year-old son on a beach vacation
with her new boyfriend.

Dali hopes that the trip to one of Mexico's
paradise-like beaches will provide a respite
from their worries and woes — but the
resort has seen better days, and as they all
cram into a small room, thoughts of the
outside world begin once more to weigh
on them. Dali's son Pepe (Esteban Ávila)
feels nostalgic for his deceased father. Her
handsome beau, Chavez (Tenoch Huerta),
can barely enjoy himself, growing more and
more tense as the funds he was counting
on to pay for this getaway are repeatedly
delayed. And Dali, though happy to finally
be with her son — who has been living
with his grandmother in the wake of his
father's death — finds that her own grief
makes it difficult for her to engage. As the
relationship among the three becomes
progressively strained, they each set off
on separate adventures that underline the
disjointed nature of this new family unit.

Filled with moments of sorrow and nostalgia,
as well as humour and tenderness,
Semana Santa illustrates the conundrum
life often presents: being surrounded by
beauty sometimes makes our melancholy
more pronounced.

A memorable evocation of longing and
memory, Márquez Abella's film plunges us
into the deep mysteries of the human heart.